Steven Spielberg Taps Tye Sheridan to Star in 'Ready Player One'

By Borys Kit, Rebecca Ford

The actor now joins Olivia Cooke and Ben Mendelsohn in the film.

After months of searching, Tye Sheridan has emerged as the lead for Ready Player One, Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the Ernie Cline novel for Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow.

Sheridan now joins Olivia Cooke and Ben Mendelsohn in the story that is set in a virtual world called Oasis, in which a teenager finds himself competing in a treasure hunt against ruthless foes after the game’s founder dies and offers his fortune as the grand prize.

Sheridan’s casting comes after numerous waves of searches dating back to the fall of 2015. Spielberg read and tested across several continents but was never quite happy. In an unusual situations, the romantic interest and the villain were picked even as the lead role remained vacant.

In a last ditch effort and showing the difficulties of the search, the studio and the casting directors even took the unusual position to make the search an open call, setting up the website ReadyPlayerOne.com, basically letting the entire world submit for the part of Wade Watts.

Meanwhile, on the Hollywood front, Sheridan signed a holding deal for the part in early February while Spielberg and the casting directors looked at the submissions.

After everything was vetted, Sheridan still remained the choice, beating out thousands.

Sheridan first gained attention in Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life and Jeff Nichols’ Mud opposite Matthew McConaughey. His recent credits include The Stanford Prison Experiment and Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse.

He’ll next be seen in X-Men: Apocalypse playing Scott Summers/ yclops and indies Detour opposite Bel Powley, and Grass Stains. He’s repped by WME, Mosaic and Stone, Genow.